Guests at the Grand Hotel are picked up at the dock by this special coach.

Text and photos
By ROD KING
Guest Writer

MACKINAC ISLAND, MICH. — Mackinac Island is another one of those places where time stands still. Shanks horses (walking), horse and buggy/wagon, horse and saddle or bicycle is still the only way to get around its 4.35 square miles. Since it’s totally surrounded by water, the best way to get there is by boat. There is an airport, but it’s for private planes.

Star Line and Shepler’s ferries from Mackinaw City and St. Ignace dock just a block from the center of town. That’s were all the action begins. The Tourism Bureau Information Office/ticket booth is smack dab in the middle of it all. Pick up a map and set out to see just what makes this island so special. Hundreds of bicycles and lines of horse-drawn wagons wait to take visitors around the island.

Historic Market Street is where most of the delis, diners, coffee shops, bars and restaurants are located. Also, 13 fudge shops.

If exercise is your thing, a bike ride on the eight-mile-long Lake Shore Boulevard circling the island provides an up-close-and-personal look at Lake Huron and the flora and fauna that covers most of Mackinac Island State Park. That’s right, 80 percent of the island is a state park. It’s also a Michigan State Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mackinac Island is well known for its fudge. There are 13 fudge shops on the island.

A wide variety of architectural styles exist throughout the island and many of them have undergone preservation and restoration. The Victorian-style Grand Hotel with its iconic tall columns is the focal point. However, unless you’re a guest at the hotel, you’ll have to be satisfied with taking photos of its long porch and stately facade from outside the fence. Of course, you can pay $10 ($5 for children 5-17) to walk the porch and enjoy the vista that includes a good portion of the island, Historic Market Street and the Mackinac Bridge in the distance.

The island was originally settled by indigenous cultures centuries ago. When the Odawa Indians came, they named it Michilimacinac (Great Turtle) because its shape reminded them of an enormous turtle rising out of the water. The British later shortened the name to Mackinac Island. They gained control of the Straits of Mackinac shortly after the French and Indian War.

Prior to Mackinac Island becoming a popular tourist destination in the late 19th century, the island was a strategic center for fur trading. Fort Mackinac, which is open for touring, was built by the British in 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. It was never attacked and was decommissioned in 1895. Wagon tours take visitors to the fort, and it’s all downhill from there to the center of town. Two battles were actually fought here during the War of 1812 before it became a U.S. territory. The Treaty of Ghent in 1815 returned the island and the surrounding mainland to the United States. During the Civil War, it hosted three prisoners who were Confederate States of America sympathizers.

Put Mackinac Island on your bucket list. For more information on how to get there, what it costs to get there, how to get around, what to do, which places to see, where to eat and the location of the fudge shops, check it out at mackinacisland.org.